“... And then Mila tripped over the tree root and fell-”

“That’s quite enough.” Mila interrupted Isabel’s story. It wasn’t her the most dignified memory Isabel was recounting. Her faceplanting into a mountain of wet moss was hardly something others had to learn about.

Good thing Mila had returned in time to catch Isabel telling the embarrassing story to Kanna and Vatim. Mortimer was here, too. The room they were hidden away was far from the conflict at the central areas of the tunnel system.

“Did she fall into a pile of poop?” Kanna whispered, just loud enough for Mila to hear.

“Well-”

“No.” Mila interrupted Isabel. She narrowed her eyes as she looked at Kanna. “Young lady, might I ask, have you not grown out of this attempt at humour?”

“I am not that young.” Kanna shot back. She was getting braver in Mila’s presence with each passing day. “We look the same age!”

It was true. After having decent meals for a week, Kanna had recovered. Her teenage spirit was also starting to show. “So, a young lady then.” Mila simply dismissed the girl. “Isabel, we have to go. You too, Mortimer.”

“Okay!” Isabel stood up. She ruffled Kanna, then Vatim’s hair. “I’ll finish the story later. Now be good and listen to Cecilia.”

“We will be fine.” Cecilia sat down in Isabel’s place. “Say hi to Andrew. Tell him I miss him.”

“Yeah, I will…” Isabel nodded. “But… You know.”

“He will give in. They always do.” Cecilia announced with confidence.

Isabel wasn’t so sure. “If you say so. Right, so, Mortimer?”

The man nodded with a grave expression on his face. “I-I am ready.” He started to walk as if heading towards his own funeral.

They then headed towards the meeting room. The fighting in the tunnels ended with Naran’s people's defeat. They had lost the central chamber, but the attacking group didn’t do anything more.

After securing the area, they left. Simple as that. It left Mila wondering what their goal had been. Naran hadn’t tried to enter the place either. With all defences breached and ruined, he was leery of throwing more of his subordinates into the pyre. After all, they were planning to escape this place. There was no need to reclaim his seat of honour.

And speaking of pyres, the one aboveground was still raging. The military had moved to contain the catastrophe, but the City guard? They were nowhere to be found but on the walls, blocking everyone's paths.

At this point, the whole city was starting to panic. The common people had begun to realise they had no way out.

While Mila pondered matters she couldn’t influence, they walked into the meeting room, where Andrew and Helly were already waiting. Naran had come as well. He was looking at the ceiling while chewing on his lip. In front of him were three empty wine bottles, with the fourth being in his hand.

And Helly was currently frowning. She was looking at Naran with helpless displeasure.

“I take you both have discussed the situation with our escape route.” Mila guessed.

Naran took another swig from the bottle, from which Mila quickly averted her eyes. Her stomach did a couple of flip-flops on her, remembering the amount of wine she had consumed.

“We are working on it.” Naran finally said. “Everyone I could get and more. They are all trying to dig us out.”

“What about the water in the tunnel? Can’t anything be done about it?” Mila asked.

But Naran shook his head. “No. We tried to clear it out by making some channels, but there is too much. They probably connected a river or a lake to that passage.”

“Fucking fuck.” Helly cursed. “I’ll get my people to get here assap. What about the party that assaulted before?”

“Gone.” Naran’s fingers twitched, shattering the bottle he held. The wine splashed on his dirty attire. “Slaughtered us like sheep, then left.”

“Good.” Mila was relieved, but the thoughtless adage earned her a hateful glare from Naran. “It is” She didn’t back down. “It is better that they are not here. They were too strong for us to take care of.”

“That’s because I wasn’t here.” Helly boosted. “I would have taken those crapsticks.” Seeing no one argue with her, she folded her hands in satisfaction.

Mila had her doubts. The leader of that group had felt more dangerous compared to Helly. “You’ll have a place to unload your energy.” She finally added, then looked at Andrew, who had been silent for the entire time. Mila poked Isabel’s thigh.

“Andrew,” Isabel started immediately. “Wanna take a breather?” She nodded towards the door.

Andrew blinked, then looked at Mila and Isabel as if he had just noticed them. “Ah, yeah. Sure. Let’s.” He awkwardly got up from the seat and left with Isabel.

It was so suspicious. Mila couldn’t understand what had gotten under Andrew’s skin. She looked at the leaving friends back, then refocused. “Well, then. About our plan.” She put her hands on the table. “I gather we should begin as soon as possible. No?”

Stolen story; please report.

“Do we?” Helly returned the look.

“A second.” Naran cleaned up the bottle fragments from the table. “Barcy should be back any second. I sent him to gather information on the intruders and what’s happening in general.”

“That’s fine.” Helly turned around and signalled to the strongly built man she had left here as liaison. She whispered a few sentences in his ear, and then he left. “My people will be here soon. They are hard workers.”

“I will be helpful…” Naran nodded. “And the healer?”

“He will also come. Everyone I think is useful will come.” Helly reassured. “This is still the most promising option of us getting out in one piece.”

With that said, there was a moment of silence. Mila heard Isabel and Andrew exchange louder words. She wondered what the fool had said.

But the first one to return to the room was Barcy. The man slipped inside the room and then quickly closed the doors. “Those two are shouting up a storm.” He mentioned. “Hey, Boss. Lady Helly, Miss Mila.”

“Get to it, Barcy.” Naran hurried his subordinate. “We don’t have much time. I have to get back to the digging site.”

“Well… There is a lot.” Barcy sighed. “The military has been forced to contain the fire.” Mila nodded. She already knew that. “There was a fight between the Nobles and the Inquisitors-”

“What?” Mila looked at Barcy in surprise. Not only her, but everyone at the table did.

“That’s right.” Barcy couldn’t help himself but look a little smug. “And the most surprising thing? The nobles won!”

Mila did find it hard to believe. “How?”

“Well, the people who talked only saw the fight from a distance.” Barcy basked in the attention. “Maybe calling it a victory isn’t correct. I don’t think anyone important died. But there was fighting, a lot of lighting and cold, and then the Inquisitors that assaulted the Noble district were repelled. The same repeated on the walls. Twice.”

“That does not explain anything.” Mila was disappointed. There was a nugget of information in Barcy’s words. She knew of a man who used lighting, and now there was someone who preferred cold as well.

Barcy looked displeased. “Fine. How about this. I learned about the mercenaries that attacked us. “Iron Swords”. They are not locals. Started their group a year ago. The leader is Laura Seteny, who possibly has a gambling addiction. She was recruited by ‘Hatchet’ a few days ago after she lost a lot of money in one of his gambling houses.”

Now, this was something. Mila shut out everything else and carefully listened to Barcy. The man continued to speak. He even gave a full list of the ‘Iron Swords’ members.

“Seven.” Mila finally added.

“What’s that?” Barcy blinked. He took a deep breath. His list of gathered information had lasted for a while, and he had forgotten to breathe.

“There are now seven members strong,” Mila explained. “Litan and Liton is no more. And we got two more even before.”

“Huh.” Helly looked at Mila as if she was a particularly tasty piece of candy. “Say, what was your wishes again? I can arrange everything.”

“Nothing you can provide.” Mila stopped the woman. “But judging by the strength of the siblings, I don’t wish to fight the whole party anytime soon.”

Barcy nodded. “You won’t have to.” He spoke. “Laura made a big stink. Apparently, this was meant to be an easy job.” Naran slammed his fist on the table upon hearing how what he had created was considered an ‘easy job’. “Now I see why Laura was so angry. She even managed to get ‘Hatchet’ to back down. She must be strong to do that.”

That sounded correct. “What about Hatchet?” Mila wondered.

“He is sending more men.” Barcy glanced at Helly. “Are you…”

“She is helping.” Naran stood up. “I’ll need your men to fight.”

“They can do that.” Helly agreed. “Just show them where, and they will do their job.”

“What about Zakary?” Mila asked the question most important to her. “The man who now owns Mortimer’s old home.”

“Ah,” Barcy glanced at Mortimer, who was not moving. The cowardly men didn’t enjoy the attention. “It’s not exactly empty, but as it’s not in the Noble part of the city, it’s not full of guards either. Some people tried to get in but were chased off.”

“It’s not far, though,” Mortimer spoke up. “My father’s mansion… It’s close to where Nobles gather. He never got himself a title. But he paid a lot of money. He was… Tolerated.”

“So,” Mila pondered. “What about the city? How are people reacting?”

“Ah…” Barcy was uncomfortable with the topic. “They are dying. There was a riot further down the east. The local Boss slaughtered a lot of them. The unrest is spreading. Nothing will stop that.”

Those were bad news. The more desperate people became, the more likely it was they would do something stupid. “And I assume we still don’t know what the Nobles are planning.” Barcy shook his head. “Would the Inquisitor’s attacking them indicate that whatever it is, it will soon come to fruition?”

“A wild guess,” Helly inserted. “You really don’t want to wait till nightfall?”

“At the very least, we have to go and see what the situation is.” Mila reasoned. “We can’t afford to wait much longer. With this ‘Hatchet’ sending more attackers, this place will come under siege. We don’t know what the Nobles are doing. We can’t wait for them to succeed. There will be more riots. It will complicate the situation more-”

“And they can be used to our advantage.” Helly stopped Mila. “And you know that. Why not make use of that?”

“I…” Mila hesitated. It was logical. But she didn’t like it. And Mila had promised to listen to her emotions more. Besides, Isabel and Andrew would be against it. “Maybe…” She finally said. “I still wish to see the place and its current condition.”

At that moment, the doors sprung open, and Isabel stomped in. She fell in the chair next to Mila and huffed.

Andrew followed, looking ashamed. He didn’t look at anyone and sat down next to Helly, earning more ire from Isabel.

“Fine then.” Helly ignored the tension. “We go and see what we are dealing with.” She decided.

“Good.” Mila was happy. They still had a couple more things to go through. Included… “Also,” She looked at Barcy. “I’ll need a new set of equipment, including a cloak. The last one got destroyed.”

“Again?” Barcy looked at her. “What… No. Don’t answer. I don’t think I want to know. I’ll arrange everything.” He sighed.

“And get in touch with Viola for me,” Mila added. “Tell her what we plan to do.”

Before Barcy left, he listed more information he had learned.

Mila looked at Andrew, who pointedly ignored her. What had the fool done?